Agricultural and Resource Economics Commons^™

Potential Economic Impact Of Drought On Rafting Activity, Prabhakar Shrestha, Karina Schoengold

Prabhakar Shrestha

As part of a research project with the National Drought Mitigation Center, we have been studying the impact of drought on the Colorado rafting industry. During our research we conducted personal interviews with seven outfitters operating in the Upper Arkansas River and Colorado Department of Natural Resources officials, represented by the Arkansas Headwaters Recreational Area (AHRA). The customer distribution for this river for the last twenty-year period is shown in Figure 1 (on next page). Compared to previous seasons, the 2002 season had a dramatic decrease in the total number of customers. This season was impacted due to several factors, …